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Development and design

Scorpan shares his name and design with a Generation 1 villain from the animated television special Rescue at Midnight Castle. He is a brown, gargoylish creature with a humanoid-like body, dark brown mane, bat-like wings, and a thin, tasselled tail. While he is depicted as Lord Tirek's brother in the series, his G1 counterpart is a human prince who was cursed by and reluctantly serves Tirek, and he was a friend of Spike's G1 counterpart.

Tirek mentions Scorpan multiple times throughout the episode and Twilight's Kingdom - Part 2, contemptuous of his "weak-minded" brother's betrayal, and likening Discord's friendship with the ponies as "the same trap that claimed [Scorpan]". In a gesture of false gratitude and loyalty, Tirek gives Discord a medallion he claims to have received from "someone very close to [him]"; he later admits that it originally belonged to Scorpan and actually considers the medallion "as worthless as he is."

Scorpan's medallion later proves to be Twilight Sparkle's key for the Tree of Harmony's chest when Discord gives it to her in a more sincere gesture of friendship. This final key opens the chest and grants Twilight and her friends the power to defeat Tirek and seal him in Tartarus once again. Both the keys and the chest later leave the tree and go to Ponyville, where they create the foundation for Twilight's castle.

Other depictions

Scorpan appears in Tirek's origin story in My Little Pony: FIENDship is Magic Issue #2. Since a young age, Scorpan has been kindhearted and soft-spoken, and he would frequently follow Tirek on his journeys outside their castle home. Despite Tirek's certainty of Scorpan's loyalty to him, Scorpan displays far more loyalty to their parents, and he disapproved of Tirek disobeying their parents' wishes and telling them lies.